Poetry for war artists

Note the heightened colourof the boywith the horseand the ploughnow ploughing the earthbeyond the tank trackswhen you consideryour best hog bristleloaded full with ochre.

c-2008 Gwilym Williams

The above was written on attending an Albin Egger-Lienz exhibition. Egger-Lienz was an Austrian WWI war artist who painted with great integrity the scenes in the Alps; the bloody fighting between the Austrians and the Italians. He refused to glorify war in paintings. He was shunned on his return to Austria and went to live in Italy.